Shake-ups and make-ups on “The L Word”

Spoiler alert: If you don’t want to know what happened, then skip this post!

I watched The L Word today (on WatchTheLWord.net) and realized that this final season is definitely not one to miss.  Ilene Chaiken and company have certainly outdone themselves when it comes to surprise plot twists and ridiculous storylines.

The show opens with Niki throwing a divalicious fit, stereotypical of young starlets. She is ranting about Jenny and how she had told off Niki in the previous episode. This scene culminates in Niki screaming about how Jenny will get what she deserves. I originally took this as foreshadowing, but in the previews for episode three, Tina looks pretty pissed and declares that she is going to Kill Jenny; I mean, the body was found in her pool after all.

Max with the new beard.

Next there’s Max. When I saw Daniela Sea in that beard, she looked like a campy drag king; the character passed less as a man with all of that facial hair than when he had none at all. The beard highlighted Sea’s feminine features instead of making her look more masculine. Max is supposed to have been on Testosterone for some time now, but he seems to look less like a bio man than he did when he was Moira. Maybe I just see Daniela Sea through the character Max.

Anyway, Max goes in to a doctor visit right before he is scheduled to get his chest surgery, and it turns out that he is pregnant. I know, right, pregnant. I really didn’t see this coming. Max pleads with the doctor, citing his testosterone use as to how he cannot be pregnant. But then the doctor explains that his reproductive organs don’t actually stop functioning.

I get really confused here. First of all, I didn’t realize Max was in a committed relationship until I watched a preview for season 6.  If I hadn’t watched that I would have never known. See L Word has this way of adding characters one season, and then the next they’re just not there, with no explanation. Time elapses between seasons, even episodes, with no explanation. It confuses the hell out of me; it’s a good thing I have watched every season about five times.

Thomas Beatie and his wife on Oprah. Photo from ABC News.

Back to this pregnant man business. In a plot ripped from the headlines, the transman on The L Word is pregnant. This just irritates me. I have already heard so much deuchebaggery from every media outlet and person with an Internet connection surrounding Thomas Beatie, that I don’t want to hear anymore. At this point it is old, unoriginal and tacky. And for Chaiken’s sake, I hope she handles this storyline delicately.

Also, I am not really sure how Max got pregnant in the first place. Yes, I understand the penis goes into the vagina and all of that, but Max was on T. The doctor on the show said that his reproductive organs don’t shut down, but I have always thought that was false. When transmen begin taking T their periods stop, which means they don’t produce eggs, which means they don’t have an egg to fertilize. Also, Thomas Beatie went off of T in order to conceive.

I talked to two transmen that I know about this, and one said that he thought it was impossible; the other told me that while it is highly unlikely for a transman to get pregnant while on T and chances decrease the longer someone is on T, some still ovulate and the eggs are still inside the person. But wouldn’t that be an ectopic pregnancy then? I don’t know, I am still convinced that science fiction is playing out on The L Word.

Anyway, it was also revealed from a former, almost flame of Bette’s that she was always quite the player in college, much to Tina’s dismay. I think this might be foreshadowing some more cheating by Bette.

I was also upset for Tina when she discovered that the movie she had been working on, Les Girls, was being changed to The Girls, a heartwarming story where guy and girl are in love, guy almost loses girl to another girl, but in the end love prevails. Tina protests because the other studio execs imply that love could only prevail between the man and the woman, not two women. That is, of course, bullshit.  The execs say that the new version and name tested through the roof with audiences, versus the old version where the girl gets the girl. Les Girls was meant to be the movie that changed all of that, but in the end, none of that happens. While I am sure that this goes on in real life everyday, it still sucks to see it unfold that way for the characters. Needless to say, Tina is at the end of her rope with this movie at this point, no matter the title.

Also, Dillon is back: you know, the alleged straight girl that plotted with her boyfriend to extort money from Helena by suing her for sexual harassment, when Dillon actually consented to an affair with Helena, altering the course of Helena’s life forever. Whoo, now that’s a hot mess. (And speaking of suing for sexual harassment, in the preview of next week’s episode Jodi is suing Bette for sexual harassment.)  Dillon has come out of the closet and shows up at Hit Club. Alice confronted Dillon, but Helena nonchalantly brushed it all off. That is until Dillon was leaving Hit Club. Helena followed her out, pushed her up against an SUV and told her off in the nastiest way I had ever seen a refined girl like Helena act. Dillon stood there stunned, but then called after Helena, thanking her for showing that at least she cared.

Jenny and Shane. Photo from Google Images.

Now I know all of this is shocking, but I have saved the best for last: Shenny is emerging. Shane came home to gather her things and Jenny asked her why she stopped trying to win Jenny back. This conversation eventually led to Jenny revealing that it was Shane that broke her heart, not Niki, and that she was in love with her. Shane walked forward and held Jenny; then Shane began to kiss her.

In the previews for the next episode, Alice asks if Shane and Jenny are a couple and they look inquisitively each other. It is also shown that Alice is seemingly telling people the news and they crack up at it.

Personally, I love Jenny and I am kind of indifferent toward the entire Shenny situation. I know, I know: Jenny has been a major pain in the ass lately, but I am Jenny. In all of those “Which L Word Character Are You?” quizzes I always get “You are Jenny.” I just can’t help it. I see her as misunderstood and troubled, but I will give you that she was at her epitomy of an asshole in the previous season. I think this season I will get to see the Jenny I know and love again; I just hope Shane doesn’t break her heart (again).